THE ACQUISITION OF Tí‰H AND MAH BY THE L2 LEARNERS OF SUNDANESE

Authors

  • Eri Kurniawan
    erikurn@gmail.com
    Indonesia University of Education, Indonesia
January 9, 2014

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This study examines the second language acquisition of the pragmatic particles téh and mahin L2 Sundanese by Indonesian native speakers. Two groups were compared: (i) a native control group and (ii) an advanced group of Indonesian-speaking adult L2 learners of Sundanese. A pragmatic context-matching felicitousness judgment task was
employed, following Rothman (2009). A descriptive analysis and a quantitative analysis of the results were conducted, which specifically compared the performance mean score of the L2 learners to that of the native control group. A t-test was used with the alpha set
at (0.05) for a 95% confidence level. Assuming the Interface Hypothesis (Tsimpli&Sorace, 2006; Valenzuela, 2006; Sorace, 2007, inter alia), the study presents evidence contrary to the claim that properties mediated at the syntax-pragmatic interface are more difficult to acquire than purely syntactic properties. The advanced L2 learners of Sundanese
demonstrate the native-like L2 knowledge of téh and mah.